§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment his Department has made of postal administrations, in Canada, the United States of America, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands; in respect of their(a) quality of service achievements for first class letters, (b) volume of mail delivered, (c) number of delivery points, (d) turnover and profit, (e) definition of monopoly position, (f) regulator (g) ownership and (h) proposals for privatisation.
§ Mr. McLoughlin[holding answer 29 November 1993]: As part of the Post Office review, we have considered developments in a number of countries, including those mentioned by the hon. Member and also others such as Australia and New Zealand.
My Department does not hold detailed information such as that sought on all the countries listed by the hon. Member. Some of the information is available for EC countries in the EC Commission's Green Paper—COM(91)476—published in June 1992. Geographical and other differences, particularly density of population, mean that such data are not always instructive in making comparisons between them or with the United Kingdom.
Important developments in overseas postal administrations include the abolition of the postal monopoly in Sweden from 1 January 1993 and the proposal of the Netherlands Government to sell a substantial stake in the postal administrations' holding company in 1994. Competitive reforms are being considered in most of the countries mentioned and some are considering the conversion of their postal administrations to plc status, with or without privatisation. There is, however, no set pattern of reform yet emerging in any of these areas.
We will continue to follow these developments with interest in reaching decisions on the Post Office review.